Everything We Know So Far About WWE's WrestleMania Plans For The Rock And Cody Rhodes
WWE fans are confused over the sudden shift in WrestleMania XL's direction, and they're not the only ones. TKO Group Holdings Board of Directors member Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has seemingly usurped Men's Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes' chance to "finish his story" with Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, and the reports about what's really going on are flying hot, heavy, and often in open contradiction to one another.
With yet another huge report on the situation coming from Fightful Select on Tuesday, it's becoming increasingly difficult to keep the various stories straight, let alone their respective sources. So as we get into the very latest, we thought it would be helpful to break down everything that's been reported so far, where the accounts line up, and where they diverge. Here is everything we know so far about the Rock/Rhodes situation as we head toward Thursday's press conference, which will supposedly set things straight once and for all.
When did Roman Reigns' planned opponent change from Cody Rhodes to The Rock?
We'll start here, since this is the subject that appears to be the most contentious and contradictory. It began on February 3, the day after Dwayne Johnson's "SmackDown" return, when Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer reported several details in the F4W forums — most notably, that the change had come as a response to CM Punk's injury, combined with fallout from the Janel Grant lawsuit that led to Vince McMahon's resignation, which also appeared to implicate Brock Lesnar, resulting in him being removed from creative plans for WrestleMania.
"Dwayne pushed super hard for it," Meltzer wrote. "The card changed when Punk & Brock were out and all the dominoes fell. Dwayne already wanted it and they felt they now needed it as well. Felt this was better to change the news flow away from Vince.
"Cody was the plan. Dwayne was going to face him later, maybe next year's Mania, maybe Saudi. S*** happens with Vince and Punk, the Vince thing ends up worse than they thought and they changed the plan. I literally didn't know until yesterday that it could change and then I was told it's under lock. But 100% it was Punk vs. Seth and Cody vs. Reigns until Punk got hurt."
Two days later, however, on February 5, Meltzer made a different claim on "Wrestling Observer Radio," saying the decision had been made earlier in the month when Johnson signed a deal with TKO that made him a board member, gave him ownership of the "The Rock" trademark, and awarded him TKO stock valued at $30 million. Meltzer had previously reported that the contract, announced on January 23, had actually been signed on January 3.
"When he made the deal, on January 3, to come in, [the WrestleMania match] was part of the deal," he said. "Why Cody Rhodes won the Royal Rumble is a question that I cannot answer, because nobody will answer it for me, but the belief was that it was Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, and nobody knew, but the deal had been made prior to that."
Meanwhile, Pro Wrestling Insider published a lengthy report on the subject on February 3. In the report, PWI claimed that the decision to go with Johnson over Rhodes "was a push by The Rock to move into the Mania main event, backed by top TKO Group Holding execs." While some of PWI's sources believed the move was made to "save WrestleMania" following the unexpected unavailability of Punk and Lesnar, "others believe that Rock pushed for the move and likely would have no matter what, given his massive $30 million stock payday is, in part, contingent on him hitting certain milestones. Sources familiar with the situation believe one of those milestones was Johnson returning to the ring this year and that Johnson pushed for the match to happen sooner than later with the idea he felt Reigns vs. The Rock was the far bigger attraction for the company."
Tuesday's report from Fightful Select contains even more new information. Fightful claims to have heard that "the day of the Rumble, several in creative were told The Rock vs. Roman Reigns was the plan, and merchandise had been produced to promote it." If true, this would indicate that Johnson vs. Reigns was the plan prior to Punk's injury — but if those plans were in place as of January 3, Fightful doesn't believe Rhodes knew about them ahead of time.
"We have heard from WWE sources that there were meetings on January 1, and others along the way that had indicated to Cody Rhodes that the creative direction had not changed, and he was slated to face Reigns at WrestleMania," Fightful wrote. "Up until the week prior to the Royal Rumble, no other parties that we'd heard from or have spoken to since were made aware. To the best of our knowledge, a select group of people were informed Royal Rumble weekend that the direction had changed."
Putting all these reports together, a potential scenario begins to emerge. It's possible the contract stipulation Meltzer was referring to wasn't for Johnson to wrestle Reigns at WrestleMania, specifically, but simply to wrestle at some point in 2024, as PWI's sources claimed. With the McMahon/Lesnar allegations dropping two days prior to the Rumble, the idea that Johnson's return for a WrestleMania match with his cousin was intended (at least in part) to distract from the Janel Grant lawsuit comes into sharper focus, with the Punk injury perhaps solidifying the choice. That timeline would match Fightful's claim that nobody was informed of a change in direction until the weekend of the Rumble, and it makes sense that Johnson would like the idea of knocking out a presumably lucrative stock incentive early in the year — though it doesn't explain why Rhodes was booked to win the Rumble match at all, much less immediately declare that he was coming after Reigns.
Some sources also told Fightful that "this decision goes all the way up to Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, and was even above Nick Khan and Triple H," a claim that corroborates PWI's report that TKO executives backed the decision to go with Johnson over Rhodes.
Who holds creative power in WWE?
The February 3 PWI report contains numerous details about how the power structure in WWE may have changed as a result of the deal with Johnson, who has a recent history of attempted corporate power plays.
"With Johnson's power as a member of the TKO Board of Directors, his Hollywood standing and the backing of Ari Emanuel, Nick Khan and others, the decision was made to go with Rock vs. Reigns as the headline bout, believing it would be a greater attraction for the mainstream and also help push some positive momentum for the company," PWI wrote. "One source compared it to Johnson's attempts to take over the overall creative for the DC film franchise."
PWI went on to compare the DC power struggle, which Johnson ultimately lost, to a potential power struggle in WWE, which he would be in much better position to win.
"This was a strategic move to give Johnson more political power overall and to show Endeavor's faith in his involvement," the report said. "Even Paul Levesque, who has done an admirable job as the Chief Creative Officer, would 'lose that power struggle with Johnson at this point,' as one source surmised."
Moreoever, Johnson's longtime partner, former "WWE Raw" head writer Brian Gewirtz, also appears to have taken up a role in WWE creative.
"One source confirmed to PWInsider.com that former Senior Vice President of Development at Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions, Brian Gewirtz will be in the mix as the voice representing Johnson in the WWE Creative process going forward," PWI wrote. "There are some who believe Gewirtz, who at one point was one of the longest tenured WWE head writers, will be around physically at least for major shows going forward, could even be there as a 'Plan B' if Endeavor ever needs to pivot WWE's direction and go with a Johnson-backed creative team down the line."
While none of this has been explicitly confirmed, the PWI report suggests there might be a shift in power happening behind the scenes, with Johnson and Gewirtz altering the direction of WWE creative heading into WrestleMania without necessarily getting the approval of Chief Creative Officer Paul Levesque. Certainly TKO executives lining up behind Johnson's vision for WrestleMania as opposed to Levesque's would go a long way toward explaining the apparent creative disconnect between Rhodes winning the Royal Rumble match on a Saturday and handing his WrestleMania match to Johnson the following Friday.
Is 'We Want Cody' a work?
Following Friday's "SmackDown," the hashtag #WeWantCody trended on X (formerly known as Twitter) for what amounted to the entire weekend and into Monday. Participants in the trend included members of the WWE roster, most notably WWE United States Champion Logan Paul. Meltzer, for one, believes that Paul's tweet was part of a storyline, and that WWE is deliberately pushing the "We Want Cody" trend in order to turn Rhodes into even more of a fan favorite by presenting him as an underdog being held down by the company, similar to the 2014 story of Daniel Bryan leading up to WrestleMania XXX a decade ago.
"Whatever it was at first, the Cody Rhodes situation is now an angle with Logan Paul and Ricochet both tweeting about it using the hashtag," Meltzer wrote on February 4. "Literally not one wrestler on the roster tweets a thing about Vince McMahon, who isn't even with the company, but people are going to tweet negatively about 'WWE booking?' Obviously the idea is to recreate the Daniel Bryan situation at this point."
Tuesday's report from Fightful Select seems to contradict Meltzer, however, as it claims that "Talent were also not instructed to tweet about it as of the weekend after," presumably referring to the weekend after "WWE SmackDown."
Fightful's report acknowledged that WWE is clearly leaning into the trend, referencing it repeatedly on Monday's episode of "WWE Raw" and having fan favorite Sami Zayn encourage the crowd to chant "We Want Cody" after the show went off the air, an act that made Rhodes tear up. What remains unclear is whether WWE is embracing the support for Rhodes because it was much louder than they expected (and might cause them to change course creatively) or because they saw it coming from the beginning — or even planned the entire thing.
If the backlash against Johnson's return was all planned by WWE, nobody is admitting as much, and it seems unlikely that WWE would be able to pull off such mass deception; Fightful Select's Tuesday report indicates that top-level wrestlers like Rhodes, Punk, and World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins would all have to have been worked by company higher-ups. Fightful does note, however, that the fan reaction may have been more than WWE expected — fans even chanted "Rocky sucks" during a Rhodes promo on "Raw" — though some say the company was warned.
"Those that we spoke to claimed that Cody Rhodes expressed to WWE that he thought the reaction wouldn't be the desired one, but still did the segment, and was said to have been in a somber mood after," Fightful wrote, referring to the initial "SmackDown" segment that saw Johnson return. "Sources backstage at WWE Raw said that they expected a passionate reaction for Rhodes, but weren't necessarily expecting 'Rocky sucks' chants."
"We Want Cody" signs were being passed out to the audience at "Raw," though it remains unclear whether they were produced by WWE or by fans — Fightful's report seems to favor the latter theory. WrestleMania graphics featuring Johnson were booed by the crowd at Sunday's "NXT" Vengeance Day PLE, and PWI reports that Tuesday's "NXT" audience booed both a tease for Thursday's press conference and a promo video for Friday's "SmackDown."
So what happens now?
All sources agree that as of last week, the plan for WrestleMania was Roman Reigns vs. The Rock for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship — PWI went so far as to say that there is "no scenario," barring an injury or some other catastrophic occurrence, that would prevent Johnson from wrestling Reigns in Philadelphia. A report from Fightful Select on February 3 claimed Johnson was even pushing to win the championship from Reigns, a move that would certainly prove his newfound backstage power, while PWI's February 3 report indicated there have been conversations about Reigns defeating Johnson, Rhodes defeating Rollins, and Reigns and Rhodes finally meeting again at SummerSlam in August to unify the two world championships.
The extreme nature of the online backlash, however — which has now gone so far as to cause Johnson's daughter, newly-appointed "WWE NXT" general manager Ava, to delete her X account after receiving death threats — may have changed WWE's creative plans once again. Nobody knows how Johnson feels about suddenly being the villain in this story, and WWE ended Monday's "Raw" without any sort of commitment for WrestleMania, repeatedly reminding viewers that nothing was official regarding Rock vs. Reigns while Rhodes left the show without having formally agreed to challenge Rollins. Meanwhile, Drew McIntyre was heavily involved with Rhodes on "Raw," and Zayn reiterated his desire to be world champion in a backstage interview segment. As Fightful Select put it on Tuesday, "WWE was heavily monitoring the reactions, and we're told that as of the days after 'Smackdown,' there were options being discussed moving forward."
This is just the latest indicator that plans might not, even now, be firmly settled as WWE prepares for the Thursday press conference in Las Vegas, which also happens to be the site of Sunday's Super Bowl. While Fightful reported on February 3 that Johnson's return had led to a loss of backstage morale, things seem to have turned around by February 5, when Fightful reported that "many in the company think that WWE either had motives, or may course correct." Dave Meltzer wrote on February 4 that "there are so many different possibilities it's endless," while the aforementioned Brian Gewirtz tweeted "You all have no idea" that same day. And of course, there was Rhodes' own tweet, posted during Monday's "Raw," imploring fans to "trust me."
If nothing else, it's safe to say that WWE has managed to successfully turn all eyes to the Thursday press event, where we expect to get concrete information on the creative direction for WrestleMania. As for the rest of it, Wrestling Inc. will continue reporting on all information that comes out regarding the timeline of Johnson's involvement, Johnson's creative power in WWE, and the extent to which WWE anticipated (or was surprised by) the depth of the fan support for Rhodes.